Kris Kross Chris Smith Reflects On Life And Death Of Chris Kelly

It has been over a year since Kris Kross rapper Chris "Mac Daddy" Kelly passed away and according to longtime music partner and friend Chris "Daddy Mack" Smith, it's been equally tough even with the passage of time.

Recently talking with XXL, Smith reflected on the life of Chris Kelly and says things continue to be different without him.

"It’s like very hour I’m thinking about Chris and I know that he would want me to continue doing what we love and what he loved," Smith said when asked about working on music without Mac Daddy. "This was our passion since we were eleven years old, so we found the love for music at a very early age. I know he would just want me to continue on the path that we started. It will never be the same. Ever since that day my life has never been the same. The world is different for me. You start looking at things really differently. You kind of put everything in perspective. You just hold onto the memories, though; that’s what kind of keeps me going in the studio."

Daddy Mack, who is currently working on his comeback project, also talked about his initial reaction to Mac Daddy's passing.

"You just kind of freeze," he said. "For me to just look back and think about it, I just froze. I probably froze and the whole world just kind of went silent. I really don’t remember anything too much from that moment that I first got the news. I don’t remember a whole lot after that, 'cause your mind just goes. I just locked myself away and I didn’t want to be around anybody. I tried to absorb it the best I could. I never lost anybody that close to me in my life. Somebody that everyday of your life, we were brothers."

The interview also touched on Daddy Mack's project, his continued contact with Jermaine Dupri and the changes he's seen in Atlanta over the past 20 years.

Chris Kelly passed away last year at the age of 34. He was found unresponsive at his Atlanta home on May 1 and was transported to Atlanta Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.